Looking at the World South of Miami: Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, Pinecrest, South Miami and Miami-Dade County.

PB: Post Election Review

by SDM

Palmetto Bay voters cast about 1,500 more ballots in 2012 than they did in 2010 but about 2,500 fewer than in 2008. These results are consistent with the overall county turnout. SDM is convinced that the lengthy ballot combined with fewer early voting days and lessened voter intensity explain the delta. It will be interesting to see how the pundits and political scientists dissect these numbers.

Ready for some runoffs?

Village voters split their vote in thirds, setting up runoffs between Jim Araiza and Tim Schaffer for District 2 and John Dubois and Brian Pariser for Vice Mayor.

Howard Tendrich’s homespun campaign just couldn’t compete in the intensive environment of a Presidential year. SDM will miss Howard’s gentlemanly ways as much as his humanity. You did a good job for Palmetto Bay, Howard, thank you for your service.

SDM was very impressed by Karyn Cunningham. She came into the race late and really had no name identification in Palmetto Bay, but her showing was impressive nonetheless. SDM hopes she will seek office again.

The runoff will be held on November 20th and it will be a totally different race. Only 30% of voters participated in the 2010 runoff so SDM figures that fewer than 5,000 votes will determine the composition of your village council.

For SDM, the choice is clear: Dubois and Araiza

Now that SDM-favorite Tendrich has been retired, the only rational choice is to vote for John Dubois as Vice Mayor and Jim Araiza as Councilman in District 2. Both need to win to turn back the Three Amigos and their handlers.

Araiza and Schaffer were separated by 52 votes or .55%. That’s close people, but the general election results are immaterial now.

Because only about a third of voters will vote on the 20th, your vote counts even more in a runoff. You can be damn sure the SOPs and the CCOCIers will show up.

Charter amendments pass, except for one

All the silly charter amendments passed, except for one that SDM took particular issue with: Interacting with Administration. This amendment would allow village politicians to circumvent the manager and pressure individual employees. Bravo, Palmetto Bay, for rejecting it.

The term limit amendment passed, which means that Mayor Shelley Stanczyk can now seek re-election. SDM wishes to thank the Blog deities for this gift. SDM promises not to waste this unexpected munificence.

13 Comments to “PB: Post Election Review”

The cult of Schaffer is truly frightening. Even surpassing the bird-brain behavior of Delores, who I called the cops on last Saturday for getting in my face while working at the Coral Reef Library, my wife was physically assaulted yesterday by a Schaffer volunteer while she worked the polls for John DuBois at Howard Drive Elementary School.

This particular nut-bag, who’d gone off the reservation, got in her face and chest-bumped her, pushing her backward, because he didn’t like what she was saying about Mr. DuBois.

She told the scum-bucket to leave her alone and turned her back on him, whereupon he grabbed her in an embrace and said, “we are only having some fun.” She then said, “no, we’re not having fun, leave me alone,” and started taking pictures of this clown.

When he realized he had just assaulted my wife, he ran for the car with a paper over his face, but not before she photographed him anyway. We now know who he is and are considering suing him and Schaffer. A Bileca volunteer witnessed the entire incident.

You should also report the incident to the Department of Elections in case that person works the runoff. It’s one thing to be passionate about an election and quite another to place your hands on another person…totally unacceptable no matter who does it.

Thank you SDM for coming to the correct analysis of who to support in the runoff. There should not even have been a runoff except for the efforts of our not so endearing X Mayor. His two candidates went down in a blaze. Howard had already decided not to run back in August when our X Mayor convinced him he would win outright. As for Karyn, She seems nice enough but the lingering distaste for the X Mayor lives on long after his stunning defeat against Linda Bell. Karyn, next time you run for something, stay far away from Gene Flinn. I can only imagine the support that he promised you and I assume he delivered you nothing.

So Gene Flinn will cost Palmetto Bay about $50,000 for the runoff election that “Never Should Have Been.” Well that’s still cheaper then having him in office.

Now The Sales Pitch. If you are reading this, then you are concerned about Palmetto Bay and it’s future. John and Jim need your help. You can contact Jim Azaiza at 305-720-7245 or Jim@eyeonpalmettobay.com and John Dubois at 786-390-4005 or john@ocpinc.net and ask them how you can help. Here’s a couple of ways. Donate to each candidate. Any amount of money is fine. If you already have, you can donate more for the runoff. Campaign in your neighborhood. It’s good way to meet your neighbors. Jim and John will come to you neighborhood and you can introduce them to your friends and neighbors. Hold a Meet and Greet or Fundraiser at your home. I’ll even volunteer my home if you need a place. You can reach me at 786-236-9893.

Election Day. John and Jim need helpers. If you have no money, have no neighbors, have no friends, just volunteer to help campaign at the precincts on Election Day November 20, 2012.

So here’s my question – did our neighbors just vote us into another lawsuit by passing the Neighborhood Protection amendment? I’m stunned and disppointed that the vote was so overwhelming. I can’t decide if this was due to misunderstanding the ramifications or do we live amongst a fervent tribe of NIMBY’s? We must push for a strong voter turn-out for the run-off.

I would almost guarantee that a large portion of the people who voted for it were hearing about it for the first time. People, as a whole, are sheep. They see the words “Neighborhood Protection” and their instinct is to say, “Sounds good to me! We need neighborhood protection.”

Yes we need protection, lots of it from these nasty people that are making this village UNSAFE at any speed….they are the ones that are pouring poison into the minds and lives of the innocent uninformed residents….a true shame and shame on them for the unethical behavior of the Mayor and Vice Mayor by getting in the face of the residents on line to vote….that is totally unethical…..these people are amoral at all levels…we need to kick their fat butts out and NOW…

A good friend of mine, who lives in The Village of Pinecrest asked me yesterday why I thought there was such a disparity in politics and leadership between Palmetto Bay and Pinecrest. I thought it was a very acute observation since this individual doesn’t live in Palmetto Bay and doesn’t necessarily follow politics. It was also a very interesting question since Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay have relatively close demographics in regards to education and income and we both incorporated at basically the same time.

To start, I’ve had the pleasure to know the Mayor of Pinecrest, Cindy Lerner, for the last couple of years. Mayor Lerner is a beautiful human being inside and out. She is also extremely, extremely professional in her position as Mayor.

Regarding the remaining Pinecrest Council members, I’ve only had chance meetings with them, but my observation is that they too are very professional and represent all Pinecrest residents, not just the minority. With Mayor Lerner at the helm, the Council’s main objective is to resolve the issues of their constituents rather than inventing problems that don’t exist.

The leaders of Pinecrest appear to genuinely love children and families and they are very welcoming to religious organizations, schools, outside events and all the things the current leaders of Palmetto Bay seem to detest due to noise, dust and traffic. The Pinecrest leadership is also welcoming to non-residents, while the Palmetto Bay leadership has repeatedly proven not to be.

Visit one of Pinecrest numerous parks on any weekend and you’ll find children of all ages playing soccer, baseball (the Howard Palmetto Khoury league that was kicked out of Coral Reef Park), football, tennis, basketball all hours of the day. In fact, a large majority of children playing organized sports in Pinecrest live in Palmetto Bay. Can you imagine?

I hate to publically disclose this, since I’ve lived here for over 50 years, but if I had to recommend a “Village” which was family-friendly, I’d recommend Pinecrest due to the shortcomings of Palmetto Bay’s current leadership.

You might wish to compare all the warmth you feel in Pinecrest versus that of Palmetto Bay’s leadership. If Palmetto Bay Councilwoman Joan Lindsay spoke to you, would you feel all warm and fuzzy? Is she a person who would talk to you in a way that engages you as an equal and is interested in your concerns? Would she have a tone of camaraderie and cordiality or would she seem distance and condescending? I think the answer is obvious. How about Councilman Brian Pariser? Is he the kind of Leader that represents friendliness or warmth in our Village? Those two alone, with the power they wield in our Village, create the feeling that the Council is anything other than warm, inviting and inclusive. That is just a fact.

Therefore, my analysis to my friend is just that, the Majority of our Leaders in Palmetto Bay have their own agenda. They really could care less about being inviting, and are certainly not family-friendly.

The way a City, or in our case a Village, carries itself starts with the Mayor and Elected officials. They have made our Village just the opposite of Pinecrest, our sister Village. For now, there’s only one good sister. Hopefully, one day in the near future, if the run-off election turns out like it should, our sister Villages will become twins.

Here is a letter just sent by me to Bill Kress our Public Information Officer. Would anyone like to take a bet if he does anything?

Hello Mr. Kress,

I believe it would be very appropriate for you to post on the Village Web Site on the Home page that there is a “Runoff Election” Nov 20, 2012 for Palmetto Bay Council. I am sending this email to you as the Public Information Officer. I have copied all of the remaining Council Members, Manager and other Candidates on this email.

Of course the information should be non partisan and just informational.

I’m sure you would agree that this is merely an over site on your part and it is important for you to put the information on the Village Web Site Home page.

So Mr Zisman thinks John Dubois did well. Not surprising from a former candidate who spent well over $20,000 to receive a paltry 409 votes. I wonder if he can collect more than 409 signatures for the floundering recall effort.

Dubois is Palmetto Bay’s own Rick Scott. He spent over $62,000 to just edge out two opponents.He peaked. Both Zisman and Dubois are living in a fool’s paradise if they think they can come close to matching the ground game of the current adminstration. Watch the results on November 20. It will be Pariser 55% to 45% for Dubois. Dubois can go back to triming his mangroves after he is spanked in this election.